


Clowder

by Lunar_L



Series: Truth and Honesty [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Gabe tries to dictate his son's life, Kwami's are so sick of your shit, Marinette has a lot of anxiety, Nathalie is MVP, Post-Reveal Love Square, as per usual, fake poly relationship, friends and family are supportive, implications of NSFW stuff, nothing in scenes though, patrol make-outs, references to teenagers being horny
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2018-12-21 08:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11940030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunar_L/pseuds/Lunar_L
Summary: Now that Marinette and Adrien know all there is to know about one another, they'll have to figure out the rest of the details and how things will work from now on...





	1. Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> So here's the sequel I promised everyone. It's just starting and I'm still pretty busy so it might be a slow start but we'll get there ;)  
> Enjoy!

“So...” Adrien started from where he sat crossed legged at the end of his bed, before trailing off and picking at the denim of his jeans self consciously. He self-consciously lifted his shoulders up until they met his ears and gave Marinette the distinct impression of a tortoise attempting to hide inside its shell.

“So?” Marinette said back from her own spot near his pillow, using an upward lilt at the end of the word to turn it into a question to encourage him to continue. He briefly glanced up at her before his face dropped once again and he turned his head away from her slightly, looking over towards the ladder that led to his upper level instead.

She raised an eyebrow at the boy's timid behaviour before reminding herself once again that _this was_ _Chat_. There was no need to be surprised by his sudden lack of confidence. As Adrien, he may feel like he had few reasons to let her see him when he was feeling unsure of himself but she'd seen Chat at his most vulnerable several times now. She knew Chat better than anyone, or at least she liked to think so, and Adrien was Chat. She knew him.

Of course, she'd only learned that Adrien was Chat less than fifteen minutes ago so it was going to take a while to sink in fully.

After his identity had been outed and she had tackled him, he had immediately responded to her kiss wholeheartedly but ultimately it had been short-lived. He'd finally remembered his ring and had been so panicked about getting it back as soon as possible that Marinette had taken pity on him. She'd quickly found Tikki and taken him home as Ladybug, dropping her transformation the second they were inside to help him search for where the ring had disappeared to when he'd thrown it away.

He'd been so relieved when he'd found it beneath his bed and had happily accepted Plagg's anger at his actions as she watched. But now that Plagg was back and had been dragged off mid-rant by a very amused Tikki, Adrien appeared to have suddenly realised he was out of distractions from the fact that Marinette now knew who he was. He couldn't seem to look at her for long and his fidgeting was becoming more pronounced. Currently, he was twirling his ring around on his finger and biting his lip which was beginning to make her feel nervous too.

“Adrien?” she prompted and he finally glanced up at her properly, giving a small sigh as he did so.

“What happened back there - after I changed back to me...d-did you mean that or was it just a spur of the moment, 'thank _Dieu_ it's over' kind of thing?” he mumbled.

Marinette couldn't help but roll her eyes. She'd kissed him so hard he'd had to gasp for air once she pulled away and here he was, _asking if it was real?_

“Of course I meant it, you silly Kitty,” she told him, leaning forward a little. She watched as he smiled an almost unnaturally wide, toothy and extremely familiar grin in response.

“So...can I take you on real dates now?” he asked excitedly, bouncing in place a little.

Marinette grinned back. That sounded wonderful. They could visit those little markets she loved to shop in and go out for coffee at a cafe and have homework dates with Alya and Nino and... _ **Shit**_. Alya.

Her smile dropped as the thought formed and Adrien's froze at the sight suddenly, his own smile fading away slowly. He reached up to rub the back of his neck awkwardly as he spoke.

“But if you don't want to-” he started.

“I want to!” Marinette interrupted him sharply, flinching slightly at her own harsh tone before trying again in a hushed voice, “I want to, but you're forgetting that the 'Safe Sex Patrol' knows I'm dating Chat.”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Adrien couldn't help but let out an explosive snort of barely suppressed laughter at the name.

“I'm sorry,” he said, still giggling, “The what?”

“Oh,” Marinette replied, her face bursting out in an adorable pink blush, “That's what Alya started using to refer to herself and _maman_ and _papa._ Ever since I told her that they gave you the same mortifying treatment she gave me, she decided they were in some kind of weird club.”

She laughed awkwardly and dipped her head a little but couldn't help feeling overjoyed that the light had slipped back into Adrien's eyes again. She eyed the large patch of red staining his cheeks along with it and leant forward to press a quick kiss to his mouth before returning to her previous spot to watch the blush grow.

Adrien scratched the back of his head awkwardly and grinned sheepishly at her, feeling his embarrassment rise at what he wanted to share but being sure that it was just the thing he needed to break the weird tension he was feeling over his identity being out in the open now.

“Uh,” he started, smiling at his bedspread instead of his girlfriend, “You know, w-when I finally detransformed after that talk they gave me -” he glanced up to see Marinette watching him from a much closer vantage than she had been a moment earlier and swallowed heavily at her proximity, “- the condoms they'd given me disappeared. It was weird but I didn't think much of it at the time.”

She was even closer now. Her knees had snuck into his line of vision where he was looking down at the bedspread and he gulped. Once again he felt like he had back when they had only just started dating which meant he was back to being flustered from simply being near her.

“A-Anyway,” he continued, “Do you know how weird it is to discover that they'd materialised there the next time I transformed?”

Marinette cocked an eyebrow. That was...kind of interesting really. She almost wished her armour had pockets for her to experiment with. She wondered what kind of things she could carry without fear of them being discovered when she was in civilian form. Some place to hide her diary would be the dream goal. As she remembered how long ago it must have been since Chat- _Adrien_ had learned this, she couldn't help but give a small smirk.

“Don't tell me you've been carrying condoms around every time you've been Chat for the past two months?”

Adrien's face paled.

“I wish...” he whispered, glancing at her nervously. She raised her eyebrow and nodded at him to continue, pulling herself forward a little more until their legs were touching. She noted his blush immediately this time and her smirk widened at her renewed ability to affect him like this. She leaned in to push her Ladybug luck.

“I didn't know you were Ladybug back then and I'd transformed for patrol,” he started, his heart pounding as she began to nuzzle against his ear. This was not something he was used to without the extra confidence his miraculous afforded him.

“I didn't want you somehow discovering them and teasing me so I threw them out onto my bed before I left. When I got home, they were gone.”

“What!?” Marinette yelled suddenly, making him jump since she was so close to him. Her heart was in her throat right now. Someone had come into his room while he was out being Chat? Did that mean-?

“Turns out Nathalie checks in on me from time to time. She knows I sneak out apparently, but I'm almost completely certain she thinks it's just to hang out with friends and stuff. She hasn't said or done anything that made me think she knows I'm Chat.”

Marinette breathed a huge sigh of relief and chose that moment to climb into his lap, which made him give off a strangled whine as he desperately tried to continue his story while she straddled him.

“A-Anyway, I detransformed and was f-freaking out that someone had been in my room while I was away and that of all the things th-they had to find, it was _that_. So after a good long freak, with Plagg being no help by the way-”

“Hey!” came an annoyed voice from the second level and both teens smiled in its direction for a second.

“-I went to take a shower to calm down and found a bathroom drawer _full_ of condoms.”

Marinette giggled relentlessly at that and her head fell to his shoulder as he rolled his eyes at her. He was starting to feel more comfortable again and was actually enjoying her closeness once more. He instinctively lifted his arms to cradle her back.

“Nathalie had left a note saying not to leave them out where Father could see in case he has a heart attack and not to worry because she wasn't going to tell him I was having sex, even though I'm actually not. So I guess we can add her to, what was it? 'Team Safe Sex' or something?”

“The 'Safe Sex Patrol,'” Marinette said, the occasional giggle still bubbling over as she spoke into his neck.

She pulled back to look at him and he felt his heart swell with adoration for the girl, the girl of his dreams. She didn't seem to be freaking out at all about his identity, an outcome he hadn't even considered when he'd been so worried about revealing himself to her. He guessed her good luck was overriding all of his bad luck while they were together.

“So, you really aren't mad at me?” he asked softly, tilting his head up to look at her face.

“For what?” she asked, her hands lifting to his scalp to run through his hair and scratching just behind where his cat ear would have been if he were transformed. Adrien enjoyed the feeling for a moment before he shook his head a little to dislodge her. He needed to be able to think straight right now.

“For being the guy who stupidly turned you down eight months ago?” he finally replied, his smile disappearing mournfully, “and then started dating you as someone else a couple of months later?”

“Aww, Kitty,” she said in the soothing child-friendly voice she used whenever he seemed upset, “Are you mad at me for turning you down when I was Ladybug and then dating you as me?”

“Well no,” he said, eyebrows pulling together in thought, “You never used to like Chat like that. Not until we started to hang out differently and you got- oh, okay. I see what you're saying.”

He hadn't liked Marinette as more than a friend until he'd seen another side of her. Just like she hadn't liked him until they'd started hanging out much more often than they did in costume and she'd gotten to know him better.

“You silly kitty,” she said, pressing the tip of her nose to his, “But now that that's over, we still need to work out how we can date without those in the know wondering what's going on.”

“Maybe we should make a list of ideas?” he asked, his arms tightening around her.

“Sounds like a good idea...” she said as she lowered her mouth towards his so that there was barely a centimetre of space between them. As she spoke, her breath ghosted across his face and he shuddered involuntarily. His eyes began to close until he was watching her through the tiny opening left between his lids. He could feel the heat of her lips above his.

“...but I think it can wait a while.”


	2. Admissions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette is ready to talk to 2/3rds of the Safe Sex Patrol. But not really ready, you know?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, sorry for the wait. I've had the rough draft of this written for some time but I never seemed happy enough with it to publish. Well tonight I decided I was sick of feeling it wasn't good enough and decided to leave it up to the rest of you to decide what you think. So here it is!

“I'm not so sure if this was such a good idea after all,” Marinette said as she waited upstairs for her parents to finish the clean-up in the bakery for the night.

“It's better than the alternative,” Tikki advised her as she flitted about her chosen's shoulder, a large cookie crumb in her arms, “Do you want to tell them that you're Ladybug? Or tell them who Chat is?”

“Of course not. That would be...no. I'm just not sure how happy they'll be with this excuse of ours.”

The two of them both glanced up at the door as they heard footsteps approaching and Tikki dashed back into the purse hanging at Marinette's hip as the door to the living room opened.

“Marinette!” her father cried at the sight of her, “I didn't expect you to be waiting for us. No Chat yet?”

“No Papa,” she told him, shuffling her feet awkwardly and avoiding his gaze as much as possible, “He's not coming over tonight unless I call him.”

She could see both of her parents sharing a quizzical look out of her peripheral vision and let go of a breath she hadn't realised was sitting in her lungs growing stale until now.

“Marinette, is everything alright?” her mother asked quietly.

“I'd like to talk to you both about something,” she said quickly. She knew that if she didn't jump right in she'd stretch this out and build it up until it became unbearable to discuss. Without waiting for any kind of answer she stiffly walked to the couch before dropping down in an awkwardly rigid position. Hands locked in front of her and resting on her knees she gently rocked back and forth slightly as her parents perched on the edge on either side of her, throwing concerned glances between one another and at her blank face. Her complete lack of expression actually told them more about her current state of anxiety than it did to conceal it.

“Sweetie-” her father began but Marinette was quick to cut off anything he might have said.

“Chat and I have already talked about this,” she started, “A lot. And he's t-talked to Ladybug and I've spoken with...A-Adrien.”

She gulped in a lot of air in sudden desperation. Her chest still felt tight however and she didn't feel any better for it. All she got for her effort was a sudden bout of hiccups.

“Marinette, dear,” Sabine said as she brushed a strand out of Marinette's face while she continued to rock in place, “I'm not sure I understand.” Marinette found that the movement and concern lacing the words drew her attention more than she wanted it to and she hesitantly looked up through her lashes at her mother's face. Sabine's expression was crumpled in worry at her daughter's anxious state and her grey eyes seemed to pierce her chest, making her hold back a sob.

“Mama, Papa,” she said, screwing her eyes shut and gulping audibly, “I'm not just dating one boy anymore, I'm dating two.”

Neither parent seemed to react. She slowly opened her eyes and glanced up at her mother first, then her father, and was amazed to find them simply watching her, waiting for her to continue. She hiccuped again.

“Um...” She was unsure where to go from there. She'd been expecting confusion, possibly outrage. Maybe even on the extreme end of things treating her like  _she_  was confused, but not this complete silence.

“You see, uh, Adrien came to see me not too long ago. He told me he'd made a mistake telling me he didn't like me all those months ago because ever since he'd gotten sort of fixated on it and realised he actually...does...like me...after all.”

Her mother's face had smoothed out from confusion and concern to a blank canvas, Marinette's  words a brush waiting to colour her a new expression. She just wished she knew what it was she wanted to paint onto that canvas.

“I was telling Chat because...well, I was thinking, are you kidding me? And turns out he had the same sort of thing happen with Ladybug and the more we talked about it and joked about how ridiculous a situation we were in, the more we...we...”

“Marinette are you really trying to tell us you're seeing both Chat and Adrien at the same time?” her father interjected, a strange sort of smile playing about his lips when she turned to look at him. She nodded in stunned silence.

“And that Chat is dating both you and Ladybug now?” her mother added, a similarly amused smirk tugging one half of her mouth upwards.

“Y-Yes,” she said in a hoarse whisper.

“Oh dear,” Sabine chuckled as she leant in and stroked her daughter's hair comfortingly, “Did you two really decide that this was easier than telling us who you both are?”

…

Marinette just stared in disbelief for a beat, the butterflies in her chest no longer due to her confession but the realisation of what her mother's words meant instead.

“If this was true, all we would have done is told you to be careful not to get hurt or to let anyone take advantage of your...what would you call that? An open relationship?” Sabine looked over her to make eye contact with Tom, asking his opinion.

“Not sure,” he said before looking back down at Marinette fondly, “But there was certainly no need for you to get yourself so worked up with worry over telling us this my little bug, we already know how things really are.”

“You-you know!?” she squeaked, suddenly sans hiccups, “For how long!?”

“That you're Ladybug? About a year, a bit longer. About Adrien being Chat? Only a few weeks now.”

Marinette's gaze flicked back and forth between them rapidly as she struggled to process the new information her parents had dropped on her like a bombshell while acting like everything was perfectly normal.

“You knew who he was before I did,” she whispered, her jaw going slack with disbelief.

“Wait,” her father said suddenly, “You didn't know he was Adrien? I mean, I guessed you didn't know when he first started to visit because you were still upset over what happened at school but, you've been dating for around half a year and didn't know?”

“Papa, I literally found out yesterday,” she told him, placing her head in her hands in an effort to calm her racing thoughts, “Wait, how did you know?”

“Oh honey,” her mother said as she continued to stroke back strands of Marinette's hair from her face soothingly, “When he came over to study for schoolwork he was clearly besotted with you. It's like it was killing him not to hold your hand in front of us. We just assumed you were the better disciplined of the two of you and you were just pretending he wasn't Chat. But you really didn't know?”

“No,” she said as other snippets of information started to filter through her mind and she processed the ramifications, “And you...know about...me?”

“Sweetheart,” her father said “you're nowhere near as good at sneaking out as you think you are. And you go through an awful lot of food, even for a teenager. You were clearly using up a lot more energy than it looked like.”

“Plus,” her mother added, “we can hear you talking to someone constantly. Once we figured out there was someone else around it became obvious where all the extra cookies were going and it got easier to catch glimpses of them trying to hide.”

She stared pointedly at Marinette's purse.

Gulping deeply, Marinette slowly glanced down at the little bag hanging against her hip, staring for a moment before finally, she said, “I guess that means you can come out now Tikki.”

Once the clasp was opened, Tikki's head popped out gingerly as she looked up at the three humans from beneath her long lashes.

“Hello,” said Sabine, her eyes closing as she smiled at the little Kwami.

Slowly, Tikki floated into the air in front of Marinette as she looked from person to person, her expression still guarded and unsure.

“This is Tikki,” Marinette told her parents as she cupped the little God in her outstretched hands and allowed her to rest there.

“Nice to finally meet you,” Tom said, offering his pinkie finger to her.

Tikki smiled shyly at him for a moment until suddenly, her folded antennae stood upright and she shook the offered finger enthusiastically.

“And nice to meet you both! Marinette is a wonderful girl, you've both done such a good job raising her! It will be nice to have more people to talk with and I can finally tell you how much I love your Madeleines! And now Marinette can bring- Marinette, are you alright?”

Marinette almost didn't hear the sound of Tikki's voice over her loud sobs of relief.

No more fear of how her parents would react to the idea of her being in a poly relationship. No more hiding that Chat was Adrien. No more stress over sneaking out without being caught. No more keeping Tikki cooped up in her purse.

No more lying to her parents.

The emotional whiplash of her evening had finally caught up to her and she couldn't hold back any longer. Her mother immediately wrapped her arms around her, pulling her to her chest and cradling her head like she was still a young child. In turn, her father placed his arms around them both and made gentle shushing noises to soothe her as Tikki attached her tiny body to Marinette's cheek in as big a hug as she could offer.

All four of them stayed like that for a while as Marinette's emotions recalibrated and she revelled in just how accepting and supportive her nearest and dearest were.


	3. Sleepover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette tells Adrien about her parents reaction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So wow. It been like a hundred years since I wrote for this. It’s been nearly a year since the last MariChat May which is what inspired this universe in the first place. This feels mad. I hope my writing hasn’t regressed too badly and it’s not too terrible.
> 
> This has references to sexy things having happened but there's nothing here that should make anyone who doesn't like that kind of stuff uncomfortable.

Adrien stared at his ceiling, deep in thought. Despite his earlier attempts to mess around on the internet, or read on his phone, he hadn’t been able to relax his mind long enough to stop worrying about Marinette. Instead, he’d decided to get ready for bed, even if it was ridiculously early on a Saturday night. Regardless, his thoughts hadn’t stopped swirling and so here he was, lying beneath the covers and staring.

Marinette must have told them by now. No matter how long she had spent freaking out over how she was going to break it to them or trying to stall, she would have broken the subject sooner or later. And it was getting past the later side of the equation.

So why hadn’t she phoned or texted him to tell him how it had gone?

As much as he loved the Dupain-Chengs, he had to admit that this was still unknown territory with them and he had no idea how they’d react to Marinette’s admission that she was dating both Chat and Adrien. It was a pretty difficult concept to understand even for some of the more liberal people these days. They might be angry. They would definitely be concerned. Would they try to stop them from seeing each other? Would they have taken away Marinette’s phone to keep her from contacting him? Should he go visit? Even after he had promised to stay away until he heard from her? She might be mad if he did.

Adrien’s mind screeched to a halt suddenly as he saw Ladybug swinging towards the direction of his home from several buildings away. The closer she got -which was fairly quickly for someone with superpowers- the more and more obvious it became that she was heading directly for his room and Adrien sat up to spring into action. He scrambled for his remote and quickly pointed it at the window, sighing in relief as it swung open in time for his Lady to swing through the empty panel in front of him instead of smacking against the glass.

“You’re here!” he said with a gleeful smile slapped across his face, sitting up even further so he could see better.

His eyebrows pulled together and his mouth narrowed considerably however, when he saw the exhausted slump his girlfriend stood in. Stumbling, she made her way over to his bed and instead of jumping up to hug her like he’d planned to do, instead Adrien pulled the covers away from his bed in an invitation for her to join him.

Ladybug moved forward, dropping her transformation as she did so and a fully dressed Marinette climbed in on hands and knees before rolling to face the edge of the bed, head immediately heavy against the pillow. He instinctively snuggled into her, arm around her stomach and pulling her back against his chest securely, placing a kiss against her slightly dishevelled hair.

Tikki floated over to the bed to hover next to her chosen, eyes worriedly moving between the two teenagers as Marinette curled herself up into a tight ball beside him.

“Plagg’s upstairs,” Adrien told her, “He’s been unusually quiet tonight though. Maybe you can cheer him up or something?”

He watched as the little kwami nodded, a sad smile on her face.

“See if you can do the same for Marinette please?”

“Of course.”

He watched as Tikki flitted away, following the spiralling staircase round and round and floating above each step individually as she headed up to the second level to see the grumpy cat god.

Returning his attention to the girl curled up in his bed in the foetal position once more, he carefully considered his approach.

“That bad?” he asked timidly.

Marinette let out a long, heavy sigh and shook her head, more of her hair unravelling in places and tickling his nose.

“It went well,” she said quietly, “Like, really, really well. It was just…I’ve been over-thinking a lot of things. And I got all emotional. Cried. Tired me out.”

She wriggled a little and he heard the telltale sound of her shoes hitting the floor as she kicked them off.

“What happened?” he asked.

“I told them…I told them I was still dating Chat but now I was dating Adrien too. And-” she yawned, “-that Chat was dating Ladybug as well as me.”

She made no indication that she was going to continue and after a cursory few minutes to let her elaborate on her own, Adrien found himself gently prompting her.

“…And? How’d they take it?”

“H-How important is it to you to keep your identity a secret from other people?” she asked, a tremor in her voice as she spoke until it ended in a light sob.

“You want to tell them,” he said, more a statement than a question.

It was unusual. He wasn’t angry or even particularly frightened about the idea of them knowing, but he was worried about Marinette. Because it wasn’t like her to want to give away something so important to her. To them. Especially when she’d been the one who was so adamant last night about keeping their identities a secret in order to protect everyone they cared about.

“They already know,” she said, sounding a little like she was crying, “They already know about you  _and_  me. Apparently, neither of us can hide from the masters of detection which live in my apartment.”

His hand went still where he had been absent-mindedly stroking her hair. It was strange having to remind himself to breathe when it was usually such an automatic thing.

“H-How?”

“They said they know me too well to not notice and  _apparently_ ,” her voice started to sound more playful again as the sobs slipped away and a slight giggle made it’s way in between words, “someone is a little too lovesick looking when he comes over to study.”

“So…they don’t mind?”

“Nope,” she said, rolling over onto her back to face him, “They’re ecstatic for us. They even suggested I come over and tell you myself instead of calling. That’s when I started getting all worked up over…well, over how you’d take the news that they know.”

He watched as she bit her bottom lip nervously, an unconscious reminder that he hadn’t actually told her how he felt about her parents being in the know yet.

“That’s awesome!” he said, smiling down at her widely, relieved to see her smile back. His gaze swiftly turned into something considerably more seductive, and he waggled his eyebrows when he asked, “Does that mean they won’t worry if you don’t go home for a while?”

Marinette’s cheeks flushed darkly for a moment. She leaned up close to his ear, her lips brushing the sensitive skin as she spoke.

“They won’t mind if I don’t go home at all tonight.”

Adrien was pretty sure he blacked out for a moment as Marinette flopped back against the bed without him really noticing, the movement against the mattress below him being the only thing that seemed to snap him back to reality.

“Of course,” she continued in a much more irritated tone of voice, “they said so in the most mortifying way possible and implied as much as they could to embarrass me.”

“They’re not called the Safe Sex Patrol for nothing,” he joked, rolling to the side as Marinette sat up and shrugged off her blazer.

“Oh  _Dieu,_  that reminds me,” she said, suddenly horrified, “I still need to tell Alya!”

“Leave that till school on Monday,” he said, taking the blazer from her hands and gently tossing it onto his computer chair nearby.

“But what am I going to tell her? Do I go with what we planned? Or do I let her in on everything now that my parents know?”

“ _‘Neeeette_ ,” he whined, “Let’s work it out tomorrow. Right now though, I’m pretty certain you can’t sleep in jeans. You should take them off too.”

He smirked as he finished speaking, propping his head on his arm and making it apparent to surely even the densest of beings that he was watching her closely. She caught his eye and he immediately gave her a toothy grin.

“Oh enough,” she said, rolling her eyes with an amused smile before slipping her hands beneath her t-shirt to unclip her bra without removing anything else.

“I’m never getting over how amazing it is that you can do that,” Adrien told her as she slid her bra straps down her arms beneath the sleeves before pulling the whole thing out from the under her t-shirt and tossing it onto the chair along with her blazer.

“It’s a girl thing,” she said, pulling the fabric of her t-shirt away from her collar bone slightly as he watched hungrily, “Now, if you get me a spare t-shirt to sleep in, I can lose this too.”

* * *

Spare t-shirt abandoned at the side of the bed along with other clothes, while their previous wearers had giggled and fumbled beneath the covers, the two tired teenagers heads finally breached the cool air of the room a little while later. They shivered a little as they took in deep lungfuls of fresh air, finally ready to catch up on some sleep.

Tiredly, Adrien blinked open his eyes while Marinette snuggled against his side, wearily attempting to focus his sight as he became aware of the two little shapes sitting on top of the globe by his bed.

At first, realising it was simply the Kwami’s put him at ease and he closed his eyes again as he prepared to doze off. That was until he abruptly remembered that the two of them were meant to be upstairs and very much out of eye and earshot of anything that had been happening between him and his girlfriend for the last while.

“Plagg!” he shouted, starling Marinette who immediately pulled the covers up around herself as she spotted the two little voyeurs, “How long have you two been there?”

“Relax, Adrien,” Plagg answered, not even taking his eyes from the phone screen he and Tikki had lying across their laps, “It’s not like it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.”

“Tikki! Do you think you could  _please_  give us some privacy?” Marinette asked, her voice high-pitched and squeaky from discomfort.

Tikki sighed in return, touching the screen with one of her tiny hands to pause the video they appeared to be watching, which seemed to annoy Plagg more than Adrien’s interruption. He made a small noise of complaint in response which went completely ignored.

“Come on Plagg,” Tikki said with a little huff, “People these days are much more private about these things than they used to be.”

“I miss the old days,” Plagg added as she floated away, phone held between her little nubs.

“Go away!” Adrien yelled at him, face equally as bright as his girlfriend’s magical costume.

“Fine, fine, I’m going!” Plagg said as he turned to follow Tikki, mumbling as he left, “No one used to give a crap how many people were around them in ancient Rome, they barely even noticed us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally wrote two chapters for this. It was basically the same except the first draft I wrote had Chat showing up at her skylight after Marinette text him and all the same basic stuff happened.
> 
> But then I kept imagining how it'd go if it was Ladybug visiting Adrien instead and I just found I didn't like the original very much anymore, despite it being more or less the same thing.
> 
> Also, before anyone asks - they're still not having sex, just being horny together.


	4. Going Public

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette explains things to Alya and Adrinette goes public at school

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I know it’s been forever but I just don’t do well with motivation. Have this. I quite like this one even though nothing big happens yet.
> 
> Also, I know how unlikely it is that everyone goes to the same lycée and has the same class and seats, but let's just suspend disbelief for a moment, okay?

 

“Wait a minute. You're doing what!?”

Alya stared hard at Marinette, mouth hanging open and disbelief evident in her expression. Her eyes were practically saucers as they widened further and further the longer her best friend remained silent.

Marinette swiftly let out the stale breath she was holding and quickly gulped in another, hoping oxygen would kick-start her confidence. Her chest tightened and a familiar queasiness unsettled her stomach as she mentally braced herself for the rest of the conversation to follow. “I’m...um, dating Adrien now,” she said with as much conviction as she had left in her, which was actually about as strong as a piece of paper. A really wet piece of paper. With a pen stabbed through it.

Alya’s jaw opened and closed a few times as she floundered for words. As her eyes narrowed and her brows pulled together, Marinette suddenly felt like she was attempting to swallow a rather large, rough stone which was caught in her throat. She gulped and the sandpaper sensation refused to go away but she could almost feel the stone drop heavily to the bottom of her stomach.

“Yeah, I thought you said that,” Alya said in a dangerously low voice, “What the hell, Marinette!?” Said girl watched as her best friend eyes flared and she raised her voice, “What about _**Chat!?**_ ”

“Alya! Keep your voice down,” Marinette said in a whisper-shout, hands waving out in front of her and head swivelling around to make sure no one was paying them any attention. She hadn’t been able to secure a free room during their break like she’d initially planned as M. Francois had taken it upon himself to stand at the top of stairs, policing classroom loiterers. She had wondered if there was an available promotion he was hoping for and mentally wished him luck, but now - stuck in the corner of the quad and praying no one had been attracted by Alya’s use of Adrien’s hero name, - she couldn’t help but curse him a little too.

“I’ll be quiet when you start explaining,” Alya said, face all fury and arms crossed tightly over her chest, her flesh paling from the tension where her arms met.

“Okay,” Marinette said, despite the fact that she felt anything but okay. She was almost sure she was going to puke, though that may have just been her dramatic side trying to talk her down. After all, there was no way she could pull this off. If only she could have had Adrien with her while she talked. He’d be able to calm her down with his soft smiles and reassuring elbow touches. She glanced across the quad surreptitiously to see him apparently chatting with Nino in the far corner. Every few moments, however, he glanced up in a not so subtle attempt to decipher how her conversation was going without giving himself away to his own best friend.

Internally, Marinette sighed. This wasn’t Adrien’s talk to have. She was just going to have to Woman Up (trademark to Alya) and do this. She took a huge inhale of breath, turned back to give Alya her full attention, and bit the bullet. “I’m still dating Chat,” she said, voice muffled by the lip she was chewing anxiously.

Alya’s eyes only narrowed further in suspicion. “Uh huh...And does Chat know about this? Does Adrien know about Chat? Not only is cheating wrong M, but you do know Adrien would want to come up to your room at some point, right? The same room that Chat spends practically every second he's not fighting Akuma in? You're going to get caught and break his heart, you hear me!?”

“Alya, Alya, wait! You don't understand!” Marinette's hands moved from place to place as she flapped them around in order to gesture somehow at what she meant, “I'm dating both of them, and they both _know_ I'm dating both of them!” She finished with a flourish towards the other side of the quad where Adrien was clearly pretending not to notice.

Alya's eyes slowly widened and her eyebrows lifted up to meet her hairline in surprise before returning to their previous alignment, this time a confused pout accompanying them. “Adrien-” -she pointed at the boy who was openly watching them now as Nino looked over with confusion of his own- “-knows? About Chat?” Marinette nodded. “And Chat...is okay with... _him_?”

Marinette launched into her well-rehearsed story concerning her new relationship status - the one she'd tried to use on her parents on Saturday evening before they'd dropped their knowledge bomb on her. She explained that Adrien had admitted to Marinette that he'd liked her ever since she'd confessed her feelings for him all those months ago. She told her about talking it over with Chat and his admission that much the same thing had happened with Ladybug. She went into depth on how laughing about it had then turned to jokes about dating both of their loves before, finally, it had become a serious discussion. She hated every second of her own lies, but she had to remain convincing for the sake of their identities.

After telling Alya that Adrien had been brought into the know about her and Chat's relationship and that he and Ladybug had then been asked their opinion on some sort of poly arrangement, Marinette slumped against the wall to her side, sliding slowly until she was sitting in a heap on the floor. “So I'm dating two people, and so is Chat,” she concluded.

“And everyone's... _okay_ with this?” Alya said incredulously. Marinette nodded. It was the best she could do now that the adrenaline had gone and she was left with nothing but exhaustion and nerves. “Is this why Adrien can't stop looking at us?”

Marinette glanced up to see her boyfriend watching her again, his neck craning awkwardly until he noticed that he had been spotted. He pretended to be stretching and turned his head away just in time to see the dirty look his clearly confused and annoyed best friend was throwing him. “He wanted to tell everyone we were dating right away,” she said with an amused smile, “I told him he had to wait until you knew, because - well, you know about me and Chat. He knows how worried I was to tell you.”

Alya watched the tender look that passed over Marinette's eyes as she observed Adrien and in turn his loving glance when he saw her smiling softly at him. “This is really happening, isn't it?” she said, looking back and forth for a moment, “You two are actually really into each other. And you're not even breaking up my new favourite ship 'cause Chat's here to stay too.”

“And you'll probably catch a little LadyNoir at times too.” Marinette's smile dropped. “Is that okay with you?” she asked hesitantly from her spot on the ground. This was the moment when she found out if Alya was not only buying this but if she would be accepting of it. She desperately wanted to believe in her best friend, but this arrangement she was describing was far from traditional.

She need not have worried, as Alya smiled. “As long as no one's getting hurt, all I care about is that grin, girl. Come on, show me those chompers.” Marinette did smile at that and she turned slightly, giving a subtle nod to Adrien, who instantly grabbed Nino’s arm as Marinette snickered.

Alya’s voice suddenly penetrated her calm thoughts, “So, who gets to tell Chloé?”

* * *

 

It was barely thirty seconds after Marinette nodded to go ahead that Adrien was finally splurging to Nino that Marinette was his girlfriend. His friend was unsurprisingly shocked at the turn of events but thankfully he didn't know about Chat's part in their relationship so there were fewer awkward questions and the rest only needed tweaking instead of outright lying to answer.

After all, he wasn't exactly lying when he said Marinette's confession all those months ago had made him consider her differently. He just had to omit that part where he had started to hang out with her on the weekends, then the odd weekday and eventually every night. He couldn’t quite explain how he had slowly fallen for the more relaxed yet confident version of Marinette everyone else saw because she had been willing to show that part of herself to Chat Noir. So instead he told him it had simply been on his mind for a while and Marinette's behaviour had changed enough around him for him to realise how much he cared for her over the past eight months.

When Nino's surprise wore off, it was already time to start heading to class, so the girls joined their boyfriends and the four of them walked back together. Naturally, the topic quickly turned to how to tell the rest of their classmates that the Adrinette thing (another Alya trademark) was happening.

“I still think it's no one else's business,” Marinette said, “Let's just keep it quiet but not hide anything. They can work it out for themselves.”

“Nuh uh,” Alya added, Nino's arm slung around her shoulders and her hand grasping his wrist, elbow swinging playfully, “We go in - full guns blazing. We make such a spectacle of this that their grandkids will be asking to hear the story.”

“As much fun as that would be,” Adrien said, “I liked Nino's idea best.”

“What was Nino's idea?” Alya asked, head twisting to look at her boyfriend.

“He thinks we just go in, subtle but obvious-” -he slipped his hand into Marinette's as he spoke, their fingers intertwining comfortably- “-and Alya and me switch seats so we're together. Then we can just act all...all...what word did you use?”

“Smitten,” Nino said, “It's my grandma's word. I've never used it before but somehow I think it fits you two.”

“So basically, the two of you are just going to flirt until people catch on,” Alya concluded.

“Yeah,” Adrien said, “That okay with you 'Nette?” She nodded, nervous at his use of her nickname, a faint blush staining her face from the unfamiliarity of being openly together in public for the first time. She was so busy gazing shyly at Adrien that she missed Alya's raised eyebrow.

“I should've asked earlier, but just how long has this... _thing_ been a thing?” Alya asked drawing the attention of the rest of the group, “You two seem a little too cosy for a weekend romance.”

Marinette and Adrien both froze for a half-second as they realised their mistake. It was Marinette who came to her senses fastest. “A week?” she answered a little unconvincingly at first until she saw the strange looks Nino and Alya were throwing them, at which point she doubled down and put on a fake air of confidence. “We discussed it all and _worked it out_ a week ago,” she said using a little emphasis for Alya to extrapolate details from without giving the rest away to Nino, “And I guess having gotten my confession out of the way months ago meant I was over my shy, awkward phase of it – at least when there's no one else around to judge.”

“And I may be a little too enthusiastic for affection,” Adrien added, “It was unexpected but totally wanted.”

“Oh my God,” Nino said suddenly, laughing, “She jumped you! She totally dove right past the awkward stuff and had you two making out immediately, didn't you Mar?”

Marinette sputtered. As embarrassing as it was, that was actually a good cover story. But oh my God! How mortifying! Marinette gritted her teeth. “No comment!” she squealed as she pulled ahead to make her way through the classroom door, Adrien snickering a little as she dragged him along by the hand and the other two smirking knowingly in her direction.

She quickly made her way to her seat and sat down, Adrien following behind and taking the space next to her on the bench, never once breaking their hands until he needed to lift his bag strap over his head. Marinette kept her flushed face low as he rummaged in his bag for his things, the other half of their group sitting in front of them and turning to show their support on the new seating arrangement with a teasing grin.

“Damn,” Adrien said suddenly from her left, “Do you have a pen? I think mine has exploded in there. Almost like _someone_ was chewing on it.” His voice was chiding and he glared into his bag at the mess as he spoke. She smiled affectionately as she realised this must be his everyday way of trying to shame Plagg for his unruly behaviour when he couldn't openly get annoyed with him. It warmed her heart to see her kitties acting like dysfunctional siblings.

“Sure,” she said, taking out a spare for him and placing it on his desk with a smile, “Sorry, the casing's pink, but it writes in black.”

He picked the pen up with his left hand, spinning it around his fingers in a very showy way that was completely unnecessary and before she'd even finished rolling her eyes, he'd used his right arm to pull her in by the waist, surprising her by placing a sweet kiss atop her head. “Thanks, 'Nette. You're the best.”

There was a sudden, excited squeal from the other side of the room and both teens turned -Adrien's arm still around Marinette- to see the whole class watching them in varying levels of surprise and elation. Rose appeared to have been the one to have squealed, her hands clasped tightly in front of her chest and a giddy bounce in the way she sat upon the bench showing her utter joy.

“Are you two together!?” she squeaked out, bouncing even more than before, “Because that would just be amazing! You're sssooo adorable!”

Marinette found herself blushing heavily again, despite the embarrassed grin that forced it's way onto her face as the blonde girl spoke. She nodded shyly and found herself pulled back against Adrien suddenly when an onslaught by the class began. He tightened his grip on her waist, using both hands to press his chest against her back as everyone made their way towards their bench, surrounding them in an explosion of questions that were suddenly very overwhelming for her. Adrien instantly took over the talking and answered for the both of them, being attuned enough to Marinette's bouts of anxiety now that he could see when she needed the time to collect herself.

Eventually, their classmates began to back off, Nino having to make a few choice comments on giving people personal space for it to happen and actually giving a not-so-subtle shove to Kim's shoulder when he didn't get the memo. As people moved away to their seats, Adrien abruptly realised that he hadn't spotted Chloé. He looked towards her seat and saw that she was hunched over at her desk, arms crossed across the top and leaning forward with an irritated pout on her face as she stared straight ahead and ignored everyone else.

“Hey, Chlo?” he said loudly, feeling Marinette stiffen against him and squeezing her gently to reassure her before he continued, “You okay?”

The girl turned slowly to look at them, her pout still in place at first before she sighed instead, shaking her head so that her blonde ponytail swept over her shoulder attractively. Maybe she should've been a model instead of him, he thought, she certainly had a knack for the dramatic posing required.

A familiar smile returned to her face, the soft smirk he'd always seen her pull out whenever something hadn't gone quite her way, but the one which also showed that it was okay because she hadn't been fully invested anyway. That the thing in question had only been her backup plan and she still had the main objective in play.

“Well Adrikins,” she started, “It's about time you stopped mooning over her and actually did something about it. You've been hopeless for the last six months, you know.” His jaw dropped a little. He'd been sure he was keeping his feelings for Marinette in check when he wasn't transformed so finding out that Chloé had apparently known for a while was a bit of a shock to the system. “Besides,” she added, “This means you've given up on that silly crush on Ladybug. And _that_ means there's all the more chance I can win over our very single super-heroine.”

Adrien laughed a little, which Chloé seemed to simply write off as relief, but that didn't entirely explain to her why Marinette and Alya started snickering too.

 


	5. Patrol

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the first patrol since identities were revealed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry. I suck at updating...
> 
> So this is slightly NSFW but it's mostly alluded to instead of anything actually happening. It might seem like I've just written it for the sake of it, but it's actually a huge part of plot going forward so please don't get annoyed that I made them seem pretty horny here.

Chat Noir dropped down onto the rooftop silently - even his steel toed boots making no noise as they came into contact with the flat beam connecting the two sloped surfaces of the roof. In front, towards the far edge of the roof -back turned towards him- was Ladybug, pigtails caught in the light breeze blowing towards him and trails of hair gracefully flapping along with the ribbons holding them up.

The sky was dark but Paris was the City of Lights after all, and by the illuminations along the Seine he could make out the subtle movement of her head as it turned -proving that despite his silence, she knew he was there.

“You know,” he started, sauntering towards her with a wicked grin adorning his face, “bugs that stay out in the open tend not to do so well when a cat _spots_ them.”

“Maybe I wanted you to see me,” she said back, her face turning to watch him from over her shoulder, a playful glint in her eyes and her smile.

 

It was the first patrol they had been due to complete since everything had finally been out in the open between them and Chat had been getting slowly more and more excited about it all day. Back when he had first discovered Marinette’s identity he had immediately thought of playful, flirty patrol routes, littered with newly discovered make-out spots and the odd scandalised civilian as they were seen together. But it had quickly become apparent that it had been too risky. Not because they were frightened Hawkmoth would find out - after all, he would have already known they were close from interviews and on the job banter, and if he had wanted to try and use their relationship against them he would have already done so.

No, it had been too risky because if anyone had seen them, it would definitely make it back to the Ladyblog and Alya would have immediately assumed Chat was cheating on Marinette. Her possible reaction was a multi-faceted thing -she might have gone directly to Marinette and freaked out, she could have waited at her house until he showed up to chew him out herself, or she might have tried publicly shaming him. All of the many, _many_ scenarios Marinette had managed to come up with had been less than ideal and some outright dangerous to them.

But, with Alya in the know that Ladybug and Chat were together now…

 

“And why would a tiny, cute little bug want a big scary cat to see them?” he asked, finally reaching her and sliding an arm around her waist to tug her back against his body.

“Maybe I want to play a little,” she said, turning in his grip to face him, palms pressed against his chest as she reached up to whisper into his ear, “before he eats me up.”

Chat sighed. “You’re too good at this,” he said before leaning down to capture her lips in a kiss.

“I have no idea what you mean,” she said when they finally pulled apart, “I’m just being the same old me as always.”

“Liar,” he said with a smirk, “You know, I have a girlfriend who hates liars.”

It was Ladybug’s turn to smirk now. So, he wanted to play it like this, did he? “Something us girls have in common then,” she told him, “I think there’s a lot your other girlfriend and I would agree on, actually.”

“Oh really?” he said, his lips peeling back to reveal a dangerous looking grin as he considered her, “Then I think you two should absolutely meet up some time.”

She raised an eyebrow playfully and circled around him, the breeze now pulling her hair out of her face where it fanned behind her in an otherworldly dark halo. “No thanks, Kitty. I’m not as into girls as you are. Although I might want to revisit the two boyfriend’s thing again someday. That was an interesting afternoon.”

She bit back a laugh as Chat appeared to choke on his own saliva at her comment before looking down at her wide-eyed. “Ladybug!” he sputtered, “Absolutely nothing happened, and you know it!”

“I know,” she said, backing away carefully until she was leaning against a chimney stack which formed an enclosure from the brisk night air and gave her a reprieve from her uncontrollable wind-rushed hair, “That wasn’t because I didn’t try hard enough to make something happen though.”

She giggled openly this time at his unamused look and especially at his snort of derision. As much as she loved to tease him, being reminded of her tasteless and lusty behaviour when he’d been split into two Chats by an akuma was clearly souring his mood, and she didn’t want that. She gestured to him to join her over by the brickwork and wasted no time once he was within reach, slipping her arms around his neck and pulling him close again.

“I’m a horny teenager,” she said against the shell of his ear and was thrilled to feel the shudder that ran through his body as she repeated her same sentiment from at the time, “I can’t help if having two hot boyfriends makes my mind wander sometimes.”

Leaning forward, he gently nipped at her neck as she gasped little breathy sighs against his hair until he gave in to his desires and captured her lips with his own again. They moved against each other for a while - just lips at first until their kisses grew more and more heated until eventually Chat had Ladybug pinned against the wall, both bodies moving and panting lewdly against the other.

Chat groaned a little before pulling back, Ladybug trying to follow and whining slightly when he gripped her by the hips to hold her away from him. “As a horny teenager myself,” Chat began with a hiss, “I can’t believe I’m gonna say this, but we have to stop. You know there’s someone who will kill me if I make a mess of this suit and he’s hardly easy to live with as it is.”

“Chaaaat…” she whined, reaching down to try to cup him through the suit, “that’s not fair.”

He grabbed her hand before it reached him, lifting it up by the wrist until it was level with his face and placing a tender kiss against it. “Bug,” he said, “I said no.”

“Oh,” she said, eyes widening as it occurred to her that she had almost disregarded his choice in the matter and overstepped, all because _she_ wanted more. “Oh _mondieu_ I'msosorry,” she said, the words becoming one long noise rather than actual language, “I wasn’t thinking. Please don't hate me.” She buried her face in her hands as her body shuddered from a combination of arousal and humiliation.

Chat rolled his eyes a little at her dramatics, starting to giggle loud enough to have her peek at him through her fingers. She frowned as they dropped away revealing her face to him again and his laughter tapered off to a grin as her expression belayed her confusion. “Isn’t the stereotype that it’s the guy who usually pressures the girl about this stuff?” he smirked.

Her jaw dropped open in horror at his words and he couldn’t help but consider how much he’d like to taste the inside of that mouth again. Her voice was high pitched when she spoke, and he fought back the wince when his enhanced hearing registered the sound as unpleasant. “I wasn’t trying to pressure you, I-” the armour coated finger pressed against her lips halted her words and he leaned in, his smile turning dangerous as his face loomed above hers. She gulped despite her desperate attempts to remain composed.

“I know,” he said, “and had we been at yours or mine I absolutely would not have pushed that no, My Lady. It would’ve been half-hearted at best. This cat still wants to play.” Her lip trembled beneath his finger as she moaned softly. He loved this. Usually Marinette was nothing but confidence when they were intimate in any way -at least, she had been since their first couple of attempts at fooling around together- but suddenly she had turned to putty against the wall behind her. He revelled in the way her breaths came short and shallow against his hand and at how she was clearly warring with herself to avoid pressing her curves against his body again. He continued to smirk wickedly and tried to tone down his thoughts lest patrol get _uncomfortable_ for him in his tight suit. He dropped his hand from her face to cradle her hip.

“I could s-stay over,” she said, her cadence suddenly much less measured and more unsure than before. His thoughts screeched to a halt. A sleepover. Another sleepover at his, when the previous one this weekend was still so fresh in his mind. So much for controlling his thoughts.

Mentally, he shook himself, pleading with his lower body not to react when he was outdoors and in the position of a role-model for over half of Paris. _You’re a responsible superhero first,_ he told himself, _horny as hell second._ “What about patrol?”

“Let’s skip it this once. We’ll go to yours instead. I just need to, um, text _maman_. You know, so she knows where I am?”

“You’d-” -he cleared his throat in an attempt to hide the way his voice cracked- “-you’d need to get up early to leave before you’re caught. Can you manage that? With the way you…struggle to wake up?” He smirked. Of all his girlfriend’s talents and abilities, being an early riser was not among them.

Her nose scrunched up adorably at the thought of an early wake-up call and he melted a little at the cute Marinette-esque gesture from behind Ladybug’s mask. “Then stay at mine?” she suggested, her volume dropping as she looked up at him.

He swallowed, his throat dry as sandpaper. Her eyes were so, so big, boring in to his own from beneath her lashes. Twin pools of deep blue that he found himself drowning in. He wanted to give in, to surrender to her suggestion. He really did. But they’d probably stay up late again, and they had school tomorrow. But _Dieu_ he wanted to spend another night with this gorgeous specimen of a girl. “I don’t know…” he said, not sounding even slightly believable, even to his own ears.

“Oh.” Apprehensively, she glanced between his face and some point in the distance for a few moments, her face becoming warmer and more flushed as she had some kind of internal debate with herself. Eventually, she leaned her body into him again, arms winding around his waist while she hid her face in his chest, the very picture of a bashful, pleading mess. “I really want you to come over,” she whispered, nuzzling his pectoral muscles.

He smiled tensely into her hair even as he was puzzled by her suddenly shy attitude. It was so strange to see his normally fierce girlfriend this self-conscious around him. She seemed to really want him over for some reason and if he was being honest with himself, he wanted to go too. “Okay,” he finally relented, feeling her tremble against him slightly before squeezing his waist tighter in response, “But I really do need to leave early so I’m not missed before _lycée_.”

“Great,” she whispered softly as another tremor shook her body. Not at all normal for her. His smile dropped and transformed into a frown at the sensation.

He placed a concerned kiss to her head. “Why are you so nervous?” he asked, tone dripping with worry as he pulled back to look at her. Instantly her face was aflame, and she quickly grabbed at the loose hairs which had escaped her pigtails, aggressively tucking them behind her ears as she avoided his eyes.

He watched as she sidestepped him to move towards the edge of the roof with such speed he panicked she might have kept going even once she reached the edge and fallen in her haste. She halted in time however, turning to face him finally. “I’mnotnervous!” she garbled, “Come on, I turned the heating off before I left. Let’s go before my room gets too cold!” And with that she leapt from the rooftop.

Head tilted in confusion at her retreating form, he quickly shook himself and began to follow her back to the bakery via the slightly elongated route she seemed to prefer the security of and remained completely puzzled by her behaviour throughout the journey.

It took only an hour or so after they arrived for Adrien to make the new-found connection that although Marinette always seemed confident when she was in a familiar setting, it quickly became apparent that she could get ridiculously apprehensive whenever she tried something new. Even something that she herself wanted and had been the one to initiate.

As a result, he was really looking forward to the next time she got this nervous around him again.


	6. Early Morning Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nathalie convinces Adrien it's time to talk to his father

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been sick so this didn't flow as well as usual. Also I think the more I tried to edit and tweak the more annoyed I became with it. In the end I needed to just publish it and brace myself.
> 
> I realised while writing this chapter that I've been keeping them as collège students despite the fact that I've stated they're fifteen before and saying it's been eight months since Chat started to visit Marinette. This didn't make a lot of sense so I've gone back and tweaked a couple of lines and scenes, both in this fic and the one that came before, It Was You. Nothing major, just they use lycée when they talk about school now and I changed a teachers name. Somehow, miraculously (hehe) they have basically the same class set up, mostly because I'm too lazy to too the leg work in re-seating them all and assigning new classes and classmates.

Adrien awoke that morning to his name being called as someone shook him gently. “Huh?” he mumbled as his eyes opened, searching around until they landed upon the figure of Sabine reaching over to stir him. Instinctively he panicked for a moment at being found unmasked until his memories caught up to his sleep-deprived brain and he relaxed back against the mattress again.

She smiled sweetly, keeping her voice low to avoid waking her daughter as well as the tired boy currently yawning. “It’s 6am dear; you should get back home before someone comes looking for you.” She leaned back once she could see that he was awake, and he let out another loud yawn as he tried desperately to keep from dozing off again. “Try not to wake Marinette up when you untangle her,” Sabine said, “She’ll only get grumpy with you.”

He glanced round to see what she meant to find Marinette wrapped around him, her hands clenched together beneath his arms but over his chest, and one leg slung across his hip beneath the covers. His heart warmed. As much as he liked to cuddle into Marinette while they slept, he absolutely adored being the little spoon as she clung to his back like a fleshy jetpack.

“How did you know I was here?” Adrien whispered as he carefully tried to disengage his girlfriend from himself.

Sabine reached her arm out towards the bed, two sleeping kwamis nestled in her cupped hand. “I found them like this in the kitchen. I’m assuming this is Plagg?”

He watched her place them delicately on the bedside table, Tikki rousing as she did so and peeking open one eye at them. “Yeah,” Adrien said, “he’s my kwami, like Tikki is Marinette’s.”

“Tell him I’m sorry I couldn’t stay to say hello, but I need to get back to the bakery and open up,” Sabine told him with a wave, before finally disappearing down the ladder.

He waited until he heard the trapdoor to the room close behind her before he completely extracted himself from Marinette, very self-consciously aware that he was clad in only his boxer shorts. He dressed much quicker than he had ever managed before, and it was as he was reaching down to tie his shoe laces that he felt petite arms snake their way around his waist.

“Stay,” came a sluggish voice from his lower back where he could feel a cheek pressing against the thin material of his t-shirt.

He chuckled and removed her hands, turning to help her lie back on the bed again as she began to slump in place. “I can’t,” he said, placing a soft kiss to her forehead, “Father would freak out and call the entire police force if he realised that I’ve been gone all night.” She grumbled slightly in response and he laughed again. “I wish I could though. See you at school ‘Nette.”

Scooping up Plagg from where he was yawning next to a giggling Tikki, he made his way up to her balcony before transforming and darting home.

* * *

He made it back in record time, quickly stripping off his old clothes like they were diseased and pulling on fresh ones as soon as his transformation dropped. Plagg remained oddly quiet as he opted not to complain about having his sleep disturbed, in favour of immediately curling up and dozing on the pillow instead.

Just as Adrien had finished scooping him into his pocket, his door opened, and Nathalie walked in without so much as a knock.

“Nathalie!” he yelped, grateful she hadn’t caught him sneaking back in full costume, “I could have been changing!”

He watched as she let out a deep breath and placed a hand against her chest for a moment before returning to her usual icy demeanour. “I see you’re home.”

He gulped. _Ohshitohshitohshit,_ he thought.

“Adrien, it’s one thing for me to keep it to myself that you go out without permission in the evenings - and all day some weekends,” she began, her face a mask of indifference, “but when you’re gone during the night like this, anything could happen, and it could be considered neglectful of me not to mention it to your father.”

Dread settled in Adrien’s chest like a sliver of ice stabbing him in the heart. “You’re not going to tell him, are you?” he begged, eyes wide and panicked.

Nathalie simply stared at him for a moment, coolly. “No,” she finally said, “but no more all-night adventures. You’re back by midnight from now on. And-” -she lifted her chin at him with an air of authority- “you tell your father you have a girlfriend. I’m assuming it’s a girl you’re dating.”

“What!?” He saw no future where his father finding out he was dating Marinette would go well. It was part of the reason that they’d decided just the other night that they probably shouldn’t hang out at his house too much; they couldn’t let anyone realise she had been in his room before. “I mean, yes she’s a girl, but Nathalie, I can’t-”

“This morning is perfect timing. I’m about to present him with some good news and I’ve been planting some seeds for a while now that the press might find it odd that you haven’t shown any interest in anyone your own age.”

Adrien crossed his arms over his chest in defiance. “I’m fifteen,” he said with annoyance evident in his tone, “not everyone dates at fifteen.”

“True,” she said, “but whether or not the press will care is beside the point. Only that your father thinks they do.”

Grinning widely, Adrien relaxed slightly, his gaze grateful. “Nathalie, you’re a genius.”

“Perhaps,” she said, a slight smirk appearing at the corner of her mouth, “Now, are you two at least using the protection I left in your bathroom?”

“Nathalie!”

* * *

It was seven o’clock when Adrien entered the dining room for breakfast. He carefully disguised his surprise upon seeing his father sitting at the table waiting for him, Nathalie standing next to him, waiting for a response of some kind. Taking his usual seat, he began to eat slowly, watching from the corner of his eye for any sign that they had noticed his presence yet.

Gabriel appeared far too wrapped up in reading something on the tablet in his left hand, moving his food around with his fork in the right but never quite allowing anything he lifted to reach his mouth. The smile that appeared on his face began so subtly that Adrien barely noticed it, but soon it transformed his entire face. It wasn’t exactly a warm smile -more of a sneer- but it still showed that whatever he was reading had pleased him greatly.

He turned to Nathalie who was still standing next to him, her hands clasped politely in front of her. “Are there any other articles like this?” he asked.

“Not yet,” she answered, “so far it’s exclusive to this publication but I’m sure everyone will have it online within the hour.”

“Excellent,” he said, handing her the tablet and returning to his food, beginning to eat with a gusto Adrien hadn’t seen in his father since his mother had disappeared. He looked up at Nathalie in shock and noticed she was smiling as well, although she was looking directly at him instead of his father while she did so. She inclined her head towards Gabriel the tiniest amount and her eyes flashed; something he took to be his hint that now was the time to bring up the topic of his girlfriend. It was clear whatever she had shown him had lifted his mood much higher than his usual brand of tolerance. Taking a deep breath, Adrien opened his mouth-

“Oh Adrien,” his father began suddenly, and all the air rushed out of the boy like a deflated balloon, “it has been brought to my attention that you should be…interacting more with girls of the same age bracket as yourself. As this morning has just demonstrated to me, the press can be very unkind regarding a person’s love life -or lack thereof- and I think it’s time you started dating.”

Adrien was thrown completely off guard. He’d considered the lead into this conversation to be difficult and awkward, and yet his father had been the one to bring it up. Pushing down the anxieties in his chest he prepared to speak as soon as he was permitted a chance.

“Therefore, I am going to set up a gala in the next few weeks. All of Paris’ influential elite will be attending, of course, and I am going to encourage them all to bring their children –of around a certain age– to give you an opportunity to meet some of their daughters.”

For the second time that morning Adrien felt a cold spike of fear in his chest and he glanced at Nathalie helplessly. She too, looked surprised and horrified. Unfortunately, she also seemed unsure on how to proceed. His father was still talking about who would be invited and how some of the guests and their daughters would be invited purely for appearances sake, so he was to ensure to memorise who he was not to become involved with and…and Gabriel _just kept talking_.

Panicked, Adrien was about to interrupt, a sure sign of failure ahead, but he had no idea what he could do otherwise. Before he could seal his own fate, however, Nathalie finally rediscovered her voice and loudly cleared her throat. Gabriel was effectively silenced as she began. “Sir, there is always a chance that Adrien already has a young lady in mind and that it would be counter-productive to arrange an expensive gala if there is someone else who he would rather attend it with.”

Gabriel looked up at her in momentary disbelief before a look of understanding passed across his features. Slowly, he turned to face his son. “Adrien,” he said, his expression undecipherable, “Is there anything you need to tell me?”

* * *

A dark head appeared over the covers, face scrunched up as she patted around blindly for the phone that continued to ring and buzz disturbing her rest. Finally finding the wretched thing, she squinted at the screen. And groaned.

“Alya,” she said once she had slid her thumb across the screen to answer and jammed the receiver to her ear, “It’s not even eight yet. I could’ve had another fifteen minutes in bed.”

“Sorry, but this is important,” Alya said hurriedly from her end, “I take it you haven’t seen the news yet?”

She frowned into her pillow, why would she care about the news right now? Her superhero brain seemed to catch up to her sleepy brain and she shot upright in bed. “Is it an akuma?” she asked abruptly.

“No, no nothing like that. But it does involve Chat. And…” There was an awkward pause on the other end. “And you I guess.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh dear, what's this article everyone keeps talking about?


End file.
